I like the silver legs.
Maybe, mask off the same diamond scales pattern on them and spray with some more glittery metallic silver.
yeah those white-sparkly go with nothing in the current color palette so far. (I wouldn't call them silver or metal in color from the internet pov)
how about the bright-neon-green? I think the problem there is you won't really see any neon green from the player POV, but if the cabinet is on an END of a row, where u can see the cabinet, then I'd consider the bright neon green.
My local powder coat company has a color called black chrome. Looks pretty close to the same dark gray the original color the legs were painted. Kind of gives it’s a black pearl look. Might want to look into it as an option. Would look great with the water theme of Fathom
Quoted from TractorDoc:I also picked up some sheet metal this weekend -- thinking I can replace that grounding paper with something more substantial in the upper cabinet. [quoted image]
I did a stainless steel sheet on my Centaur. It adds a nice touch
IMG_0698 (resized).JPGI was never one to be overly self conscious, so all comments about my legs are taken with an open mind.
It is still too early to know how everything will come together, I need to attach a few more things to the cabinet for that. I've always liked how silver looks with blue, especially the dark base blue of the cabinet. As of now I have not been able to capture how the legs look in person -- they seem to lose something in the pictures I've posted thus far. At any rate, I will work on adding parts on. . . luckily a leg is only held on with two bolts so it will not be difficult to swap them out if needed.
Quoted from CanadianPinball:I did a stainless steel sheet on my Centaur.
That looks fantastic -- stainless was an excellent choice for Centaur. I'd probably copy you if I had not already cut my metal!
How about do the legs in the fish scale like the “Fathom” side lettering
Iam sure the pimp can make leg stencils
Have you ever ordered parts for a game only to have them nowhere to be found when the time comes to use them?
I know at some point I ordered a set of the metal leg protectors and spent last week looking for them in my pinball parts boxes without success. Finally I gave up and ordered a set from Mantis Amusements and they arrived in the mail today. It was my full intention to install those leg protectors this afternoon but when I entered the shop I saw the coin door trim in one of my parts boxes and the next thing you know I spent the next couple hours in front of the buffing wheel. Not only did I polish the coin door trim but put some time in buffing the new side rails from Mantis Amusements too. Being new the rails looked nice as is, but I thought a little extra shine would be nice.
Once cleaned up do you think I just put the parts back in the box? You know better.
Installed the upper glass receiver as well.
New side rails with new flipper buttons.
I did not install all the nails in the side rails just yet, just in case.
Next time I will work on getting those leg protectors installed.
Maybe.
Quoted from freddy:How about do the legs in the fish scale like the “Fathom” side lettering
Ah, yes. The legs.
After installing today's trim I too have come to the conclusion that the silver is several shades too light to work as is. I will probably rob one of the standard color legs off Paragon to see how it looks; perhaps even blast another set of legs and try repainting a different color. These legs with my wheel rim silver may just have to find their way to another game -- the paint that is on them is some tuff stuff and will not be coming off anytime soon!
5J5A0646 (resized).JPGQuoted from TractorDoc:Ah, yes. The legs.
After installing today's trim I too have come to the conclusion that the silver is several shades too light to work as is. I will probably rob one of the standard color legs off Paragon to see how it looks; perhaps even blast another set of legs and try repainting a different color. These legs with my wheel rim silver may just have to find their way to another game -- the paint that is on them is some tuff stuff and will not be coming off anytime soon![quoted image]
I vote stock Bally grey.
Progress on the cabinet leg protectors today. . . even if it was slightly painful.
The original cabinet leg holes appear less than perfectly drilled on all corners.
The slightly painful part was drilling holes into the cabinet that I spent so much time removing holes from. I probably could have gotten away with felt between the cabinet and legs or a different type of protector, but if nothing else these metal ones will keep the legs from gouging the cabinet in addition to providing more stability.
Luckily the only damage was the holes. I did not slip with the screwdriver while installing and mark up the cabinet (this time).
I actually kind of like how they look on the cabinet even without the legs.
Quoted from TractorDoc:I actually kind of like how they look on the cabinet even without the legs.
Maybe that’s a nudge for the direction your brain is telling you to go on leg finish?
With the protectors installed I did a quick test "fit" of some original dark gray Bally color legs. Definitely better than my silver.
Before I can officially install the legs I need to think about how I want to install/route the ground braid to coordinate with the new interior leg bolt mounting plates. The legs are just leaning in place for the pictures.
5J5A0665 (resized).JPG5J5A0666 (resized).JPG
Oh, and what happened to my silver legs? I found a place for them.
Looks amazing Doc. I agree, the grey legs look fantastic on this machine. I really like your choice of blue flipper buttons. Looking really great!
Brought the laptop into the shop today so I could examine my before pictures and route my ground braid. Filling in all those staple holes has its disadvantages.
With the ground more or less figured out I also spent some time getting the leg mounting plates installed. This took longer than expected for no good reason, that reason being hardware. We probably have a hundred bins of screws around the farm and shop and I never thought finding proper screws to mount the plates would be an issue. As it turns out all those bins had few screws that actually matched and/or were the length I needed. Every size, shape, and number of machine screw imaginable was present but a much smaller selection of wood screws were to be had. After a good bit of time searching and sorting (probably could have made two trips to Home Depot) I counted out what I needed and secured the brackets in place.
And installed the legs! It is nice to have the cabinet off that K-Mart plant cart.
5J5A0672 (resized).JPG5J5A0673 (resized).JPG
All this was accomplished today with the rumbling sound of the tumbler in the background cleaning the cabinet hardware. Mrs. TractorDoc says I can use the dishwasher tonight to clean the cabinet harness. . . but I have to unload all the dishes in it first. I don't know why, but unloading the dishwasher is not one of my favorite tasks. I always have a fear of somehow finding out it is clean then the wife finding out that I know its clean.
The cabinet harness is all washed and clean. Before I can start mounting it back in the cabinet I wanted to make a new panel for the tilt components. The original is charming and has character, but I thought it better to have something to match the bottom.
I cut some pieces from the birch plywood that was used for the bottom panel. The strip I cut out offered enough for two pieces, I will put one up on the shelf for a potential future project.
Rather than measure out all the proper hole spacings I simply clamped the two boards together and drilled thru the holes in the original. The four mounting screw holes went full thru the new panel but I choked up the bit and only drilled partially thru for the other holes.
Several coats of Golden Pecan stain topped with semi-gloss polyurethane and it will be in the cabinet in no time. . . as soon as it dries!
I notice you have those mini-dollies under the legs. If you have trouble with the legs slipping off them like I did, you might consider adding some cheap cups. They work much better
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/show-and-tell-your-diy-homemade-tools/page/10#post-5058358
Quoted from mark532011:I notice you have those mini-dollies under the legs. If you have trouble with the legs slipping off them like I did, you might consider adding some cheap cups.
Great suggestion!
Believe it or not the shop floor is rather level and if the leg feet are adjusted properly they rarely slide off. I'm in no hurry pushing things around either, so I imagine that helps.
Slowwwly working on replacing wiring/hardware in the bottom cabinet. It has been pointed out a gazillion times before, but taking pictures before disassembly is such a great reference for putting things back together later. It may seem simple enough when taking things apart, but knowing which part goes where and how it is attached is not so easy to remember when you are looking at a large loose pile of brackets, clips, and screws.
A before/after of today's accomplishment: the left side.
Quoted from PinballPimp:The cabinet looks fantastic! Glad you like my stencils and the precision artwork!
Thanks Jeff! Your stencils are the Gold Standard!
Today we buttoned up the right side. A couple quick befores and after:
The transformer mounting hardware is getting the tumbler treatment and should be a quick install. I picked up a molex connector kit from Todd at Big Daddy . . now I just need to see if I can find, make, or ultimately but the tool to remove the pins from the original connectors. I suppose I could also cut the wires and crimp on the new pins too. . .
Switched cabinets today. With the bottom cabinet close to ready (minus the coin door) I thought it was time to give the upper cabinet some attention.
As mentioned at the top of this page I had acquired a piece of sheet metal to replace the old piece of paper ground material. An Amish friend was putting some siding up on a barn down the road so I marked my new ground panel and took a trip over to see him and his metal brake. A couple quick bends and the panel should fit right into the cabinet. . . if I measured correctly.
Yes, one side is shorter than the other. . . my piece of metal was not quite long enough but I will take care of that later.
I used the old paper as a template and marked each of the screw holes with a Sharpie.
An awl and hammer provided dimples so the drill bit did not wander while making the new holes.
I used a larger than necessary drill bit to make the new holes. This gave me a bit of extra wiggle room just in case my marks were slightly off from the originals. As it turned out this helped when the time came to install.
I thought it best to install the display panel hinge first -- the panel more or less has a set position and I wanted those holes to line up as accurately as possible. With the hinge installed the rest of my holes were about 1/16" too far to the right, but the larger openings saved the day and allowed installation to continue. The laptop helped identify which screws went in which location.
I kept cleaning and installing parts. . . before you know it I had most of the upper cabinet back together. As you can see I added the extra metal to the right side.
I plan on making new spec cards to install around the cabinet interior. . . I will likely find a different way to attach them than using staples though.
Even though it was getting close to supper time I decided to push on and bolt one of the hinges to the bottom of the upper cabinet. I slid the other hinge half into its position on the lower cabinet -- the hinge halves faced opposite each other so I could not attach both to the bottom of the upper cabinet at the same time. I strategically moved the upper cabinet into position and after tightening a couple bolts the upper and lower cabinet are now joined once more!
5J5A0689 (resized).JPG5J5A0691 (resized).JPG5J5A0695 (resized).JPG
Joining the two did take as long as I thought. . . but I was still late for supper after standing around and staring at the cabinet for an undisclosed amount of time.
Quoted from Skypilot:Next level shit there sir
Quoted from ChipScott:Man o man o man that's looking sweeeet....
As always, Thanks for the Positive Vibes.
Moving forward today by taking more stuff apart. Started with the Coin Door. Now, if only there was a Pinside Guide to steer me thru the process of rebuilding the door. . . . Oh, Wait! There is one :
Rather than redo a step by step tutorial again I will start with a couple of the before pictures:
5J5A0698 (resized).JPG5J5A0697 (resized).JPG
I had the door apart in about 20 minutes or so not counting time for pictures and what not. Several surprises include a Nickel stuck in the coin return chute:
It was secured in place by a substance that reminded me of the sticky stuff that holds your new credit card to the paper when you receive it in the mail. It had a date of 1994 and a shine that looked like new (under the sticky stuff).
The other happy find was hiding between the door skin and backing plate.
When I wrote up the coin door thread I mentioned that I was not sure Bally doors even came with coin flaps until I bought a door on E-bay that had one. In fact I had saved that flap for this door. . . now I have two!
Everything apart.
Some pieces are already in the tumbler and others will be blasted/painted. Hopefully after a couple days of cleaning/preparation I can start reassembly.
Today's other project is/was the display panel.
A couple befores front and back:
5J5A0711 (resized).JPG5J5A0713 (resized).JPG
I was able to clear off the front side easily enough.
It occurred to me that the back side is going to be a bit more work. The plan is to repaint the panel white. . . and to do that properly I should remove all the lamp sockets and associated wiring. I was not being as particular on Paragon and simply repainted the front of the panel leaving the sockets/wiring in place -- after making everything else look like new on this game I think it would be poor form to leave the backside of this panel somewhat dirty and unpainted.
I will leave that for another day. I believe I have read somewhere that the plastic wedge type lamp sockets can be frustrating/flaky as well? If I am going thru the trouble of pulling everything perhaps I can replace them with the metal #44/47 bulb style. Looks like I have another parts order to place. . .
My recommendation is to replace them with the same style of socket. Odds are good the same type is used throughout the machine, so it's more a logistical thing to do so, so that the machine uses only one "type" of bulb. Otherwise, any new socket should be pretty reliable compared to what's in there, whether it's a plastic wedge socket or a bayonette.
Quoted from LynnInDenver:My recommendation is to replace them with the same style of socket. Odds are good the same type is used throughout the machine, so it's more a logistical thing to do so, so that the machine uses only one "type" of bulb. Otherwise, any new socket should be pretty reliable compared to what's in there, whether it's a plastic wedge socket or a bayonette.
I think trac doc is on the right track
Quoted from LynnInDenver:My recommendation is to replace them with the same style of socket. Odds are good the same type is used throughout the machine, so it's more a logistical thing to do so, so that the machine uses only one "type" of bulb.
True, but what if I replace all the sockets. . . display panel, coin door, playfield, etc. Then they would all be of the same "type."
I've seen where a couple of other restorations have done this ( PinballMikeD 's Fathom for instance ) and mentions of the #44 socket being more reliable from the likes of Freeplay40 -- this was years ago though. Also, I've only done a quick search, but I have yet to find those plastic #555 sockets at PBR or Marcos. They may be there, I did not search all that long.
I'm sure I will figure something out.
Harnesses in the dishwasher as I type (coin door, display panel, board harnesses). Tumbler tumbling in the garage.
Not a very picture worthy update.
Quoted from freddy:I think trac doc is on the right track
I hope so. . . Thanks!
Quoted from TractorDoc:True, but what if I replace all the sockets. . . display panel, coin door, playfield, etc. Then they would all be of the same "type."
I've seen where a couple of other restorations have done this ( pinballmiked 's Fathom for instance ) and mentions of the #44 socket being more reliable from the likes of freeplay40 -- this was years ago though. Also, I've only done a quick search, but I have yet to find those plastic #555 sockets at PBR or Marcos. They may be there, I did not search all that long.
Replacing all the sockets is viable, as long as you don't have things like light boards that take those "twist in" #555 sockets for a playfield array. Do realize that it may make the machine less "desirable" on the market because it has a different type of lamp socket than it shipped with from the factory.
Here's at least a starting point for finding wedge sockets: https://www.marcospecialties.com/control/keywordsearch?SEARCH_STRING=wedge+lamp+socket
The only real reason we have wedge lamps in the house is because of what I fitted into our virtual pinball... both the used Suzo-Happ coin door and the Launch button use wedges, and I haven't decided if I'm going to make the attempt to change those for bayonettes. We're using LED bulbs anyway, which reduces the need to change bulbs in general, and the wedge made it easy to change the Launch button because I'm limited to 3V, I just adapted a straight LED into an empty wedge base and added my own resistor.
Quoted from LynnInDenver:Do realize that it may make the machine less "desirable" on the market because it has a different type of lamp socket than it shipped with from the factory.
Just a reminder that I am restoring this game for me, not for the market.
IF I can bring myself to sell this game someday and someone gives me a hassle because of the type of lamp sockets. . . well they can go pound sand. They probably would not have looked twice anyway after seeing my non-factory paint job.
I always appreciate the thoughts and thanks for the link on the sockets!
Quoted from TractorDoc:Just a reminder that I am restoring this game for me, not for the market.
IF I can bring myself to sell this game someday and someone gives me a hassle because of the type of lamp sockets. . . well they can go pound sand. They probably would not have looked twice anyway after seeing my non-factory paint job.
I always appreciate the thoughts and thanks for the link on the sockets!
It is your game.
The only thing that would keep me from changing the sockets on a machine to another style is just the whole, "oh, man, how MANY sockets would I be dealing with here?" Our virtual build technically has three types of bulbs; three wedges in the coin door, that modified wedge in the Launch button, and the two EZStart led buttons next to the coin door. It'd give anyone fits in terms of logistics, but again, LED, I don't expect to have to deal with them except to change the insert color on the coin slots.
Progress on the display panel. I used a thin, sharp screwdriver to pry up all the staples and remove the wire/sockets from the back side. Before painting the panel I thought it best to fill in the staple holes -- if I did not those little black holes would surely be visible on the new white panel.
Sanded then sprayed primer.
The back side received its coat of white today. The front side is waiting until tomorrow.
In between filling, sanding, and painting I've continued to polish up the coin door parts. I think I have just about everything ready to go; I am waiting for the new lamp sockets to arrive so I can replace the wedges in the coin door harness, then it will be time to reassemble.
I've had some other distractions the last week or two. Our corgi mix decided to slip a disc in his back and needed surgery. . . now its a matter of keeping him still/carrying him down the steps/taking him for short leash walks as he heals. He can be a bit of a handful. Also he is not as fat as he looks in the picture. . . its just a bad camera angle.
Awww, poor guy. I suddenly don’t care about your meticulous attention to detail on the pin. Hope he gets better soon. By the way, nice job on your display panel i guess. I’m kidding. Looking good!
A new toy/tool arrived in the mail today.
After years of using my soldering station and hand held spring powered sucker I'm (hopefully) taking a big leap forward in my technique at board work. This thing has been in my E-bay cart since about January. I was hoping they would offer a promo code before buying, but I'm getting to the point where it will come in handy for the boards and playfield. There will probably be a promo code offered later this week.
A rebuild of the solenoid driver, squawk n' talk, etc. will be in order and I have several kits from Todd at Big Daddy ready to go.
It will not be tonite, but one of these future posts will show how well I master (or fail!) at using the new equipment. I will practice a bit on some old boards first just in case.
I have a the same gun from Hakko, looks slightly different. It works extremely well. After a session with it, clean out the collected gunk, it builds up faster than you would expect. Also for hard to melt ages solder you can touch some fresh solder to the tip to help the old stuff flow. Another tip I read here on Pinside was to not mash the tip onto the board over a pin. That will loosen the pad bond on the actual PCB if overheated. Push into the solder and a bit sideways against the pin rather than hard down onto the board.
On things like coils, nothing works better than removing 30 years of other peoples terrible soldering, just vacuum it all off.
New bayonet style lamp sockets arrived and the first three were promptly soldered into the coin door harness last nite.
As soon as the today's obligations were fulfilled I finished reassembling the door itself. A couple back/front pictures.
5J5A0743 (resized).JPG5J5A0745 (resized).JPG5J5A0747 (resized).JPG5J5A0748 (resized).JPG
I know the CPR Plastic set has art filled inserts for the price plates, but for some reason I like plunking quarters/dollars in for credits and put the original style in (for now). That's right, Fifty Cents a game once we are up and running!
If you've read this thread enough you know the door did not sit on the workbench for long. It found its place on the cabinet in short order.
A couple interior pics:
The blue interior door panel blended nicely with the cabinet interior.
Several views of the outside:
5J5A0757 (resized).JPG 5J5A0762 (resized).JPG
Work continues on the display panel. As usual I am taking a few extra steps wiring in the new lamp sockets. . . details to come.
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